Roberts’ Horse officer’s uniform button in gilt metal finish, produced in the pattern worn between 1900 and 1902 by Roberts’ Horse, an irregular volunteer mounted corps raised for service in the Second Boer War. This South African War irregular cavalry officer’s button displays the regimental device in clear relief, with a rearing horse facing left on the ground as the central device, the title around the lower circumference of the button face inscribed “ROBERTS HORSE”, and an outer rim border. No crown surmounts the device, consistent with the button’s use by an irregular volunteer corps rather than a regular army regiment, and distinguishing it from the crowned button patterns of the regular cavalry regiments serving alongside it in the field. The reverse carries a shank loop for attachment.
Roberts’ Horse was raised in early 1900 in response to Lord Roberts’ appointment as Commander-in-Chief of British forces in South Africa following the reverses of Black Week in December 1899. The corps was one of two irregular mounted regiments formed at that time; the other was Kitchener’s Horse, both named as personal compliments to Roberts and his Chief of Staff, as an expression of the volunteers’ loyalty and confidence in the new command. Both corps were originally intended to be designated the second and third regiments of the South African Light Horse, but the names were changed at the particular request of the men themselves. At its formation, Roberts’ Horse mustered at a strength of approximately 550 men, recruited chiefly from volunteers who had made their way to South Africa from various parts of the world, and was attached to General French’s Cavalry Division for the advance on Kimberley. The corps took part in the seizing of the drifts on the Riet River in February 1900, participated in the advance to relieve Kimberley and the subsequent operations against General Cronjé, and served at the Battle of Paardeberg on 27 February 1900, in which Cronjé’s force was surrounded and compelled to surrender. A member of the corps, Lieutenant F A Maxwell of the 18th Bengal Lancers attached Roberts’ Horse, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at the Battle of Sannah’s Post on 31 March 1900, going out on five separate occasions under heavy fire to assist in bringing in guns and limbers of Q Battery, Royal Horse Artillery. The corps continued in the field during the subsequent guerrilla phase of the war and was stood down on the conclusion of hostilities in 1902.
Manufactured in gilt metal to the officer’s pattern standard, this 19mm button provides a well-defined representation of the Roberts’ Horse regimental device as worn throughout the South African campaign. Roberts’ Horse buttons are collected as examples of Second Boer War irregular cavalry uniform accessories, officers’ insignia of the volunteer mounted corps of the South African War, and militaria associated with one of the most actively engaged irregular formations of Lord Roberts’ advance on Bloemfontein.
Dimensions 19mm in diameter
Condition Excellent
